Employers Pressured For Millennium Top Ups - The heat is going on employers to front up with millennium sweeteners for workers on New Year’s Eve. TVNZ has already come to the party with extra payments for staff working over the New Year period. Fire fighters, police and nurses are just some of the other groups looking for a similar payment. Auckland Healthcare chief executive says he personally feels there are grounds for recognising this New Year’s Eve as something special. Auckland Healthcare is in touch with chief executives of other hospitals around the country. The feeling is many are not ill-disposed to some kind of millennium payment. But the Employers Federation is urging employers not to buckle under pressure for extra payments. It says workers have no legal right to ask for more money or incentives.

Apple Growers Face Slim Returns - Devastating news for New Zealand’s apple growers, with their projected income being slashed in half. Many of them are expected to go to the wall. ENZA was forecasting they would receive around $14 a box for Braeburn apples, the reality is they will get around $7 a box after a huge influx of Braeburns on the world market from competitors like South Africa and Chile. Orchardists and independent MP Neil Kirton say it is a disaster which leaves orchardists in a daze. Mr Kirton says Hawkes Bay orchardists simply cannot stand three disastrous years in a row.

Telecom Rakes In Profits - Telecom’s profits continue to grow with cellphone and data revenues helping the company to post a healthy profit of $202 million after tax for the June quarter. That is 6.3 percent up on the same period last year. Telecom is crediting the rise to a 2.7 percent increase in earnings while costs have remained flat. Cellular revenues increased by almost 20 percent while data revenues improved by just over 16 percent.

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